Verba User Stories | The Raider Store at Milwaukee School of Engineering

MSOE IS ALL IN

The Raider Store at Milwaukee School of Engineering

Year-Over-Year Sales

Up 15%

System

MBS

School Type

Small Private

Dave Abrahamson at Milwaukee School of Engineering may be new to Verba, but that hasn’t stopped him from jumping in with both feet. As a result, his sales are up 15% over last Fall Rush, his returns are down, and his margins have increased.

Use all the tools Verba offers. I figured if I don’t do it, I won’t be around much longer.

Dave began preparing for his successful rush by sourc- ing books from the online marketplace. “I did a ton of sourcing on my own through Amazon but it was a pain in the a** to receive all of those books from individual sellers and transact with each vendor with a credit card.” He streamlined his sourcing tactics by using Verba’s Full-Service Sourcing module, which offered him a line of credit to source from the marketplace, along with bin- and-hold and quality control to save him time receiving.

Dave was able to stay competitive and saved his store real dollars by using Verba’s buyback tool. He loaded his buyback list into the Dynamic Buyback module, where Verba served up every title for which his buyback price was unnecessarily higher than the online competition. “I’ve been shifting to marketplace pricing for buyback for a while now and used to do all of the price checks manu- ally,” Abrahamson explains.

Now I just open up Verba and all the data I need is right in front of me.

As Dave edged closer to rush, he logged back into Verba to ensure his prices were competitive. He made roughly 140 price changes in preparation for his first rush offering comparison shopping. This was a big move for Dave: “Students have no control over the cost of tuition nor room and board. But they can control the costs of their textbooks by reviewing choices. When you make it easy for them to find the best prices, that’s when they buy from you.”

Dave noticed an unexpected but equally important bene- fit from Verba Compare after rush: his returns were down. With his store offering competitive prices to students, fewer customers were buying books from Dave only to return them once their less expensive marketplace copy arrived.

Students appreciate transparency. It gives you validity. Yes, you have to put a little more work into it to be competitive” he explains, “but in the long run, the results are there.

Dave was one of the first Verba users to deploy the new Dynamic Rental module this Spring. He shopped his rental return list among multiple wholesalers and loaded the offers into Verba. When the term ended, he simply scanned the books and shipped them off to the highest bidder.

It worked like a charm”, reports Abrahamson. “It was my first time and I wish I had done more. I could have been more aggressive and scanned more titles but what I did was super successful. It was unbelievable.

When asked what he would say to a fellow newcomer to the Verba toolset, Dave offers this advice: “I say jump in with both feet. Use all the tools Verba offers. I figured if I don’t do it, I wont be around much longer,” says Abrahamson with a smile and a new-found confidence in his store’s ability to compete.